Friday, April 29, 2016

almost end of april and really feeling like spring!

today was such a beautiful, clear and blue day!

here is my beautiful oregano plant that i trimmed back and am in the purpose of drying for use as our own spice over the winter. we will get several cuttings from this one plant over the season to dry to make our spice. this oregano plant is 5 yrs old and they come back on their own - year after year.

we have a ton of store-bought spices in our long-term food storage...but we won't use any of it if we can grow and dry our own. it's always great to have a ton of store-bought spices in your food stores but it is so much better if you can grow and dry your own. healthier too!

surprise!

the tulips are popping up and showing green. the tulips i planted were a mixed bag so i don't even know what colour each tulip will be until the flowers appear! that's the surprise!

here's a prepper-related item that i am growing for the first time - hops!

can you say home-made beer???? we have a beer-making kit and can't wait to try and grow our own hops! again - you can buy beer, you can store beer - but isn't it better if you have the knowledge and equipment to make your own? from your own hops? again - healthier, too!

some stuff that i planted today - some of which is prepper-related, and one that is simply for my enjoyment:

american ginseng, irish moss, F1 hybrid cabbage and sugar beets! the ginseng, cabbage and sugar beets are all prepper-related - the ginseng root can be used just like ginger and turmeric root - and we all know the health benefits of ginseng! i got the cabbage because it is a super-size cabbage that does well in northern climes and stores well. the sugar beets can be used as regular beets, or you can make sugar out of them. the process is not difficult to do at all! and, even though we already have a ton of organic sugar (cane) in our stores, if we can make our own - that will be brilliant! we are not big sugar consumers to begin with but the ability and knowledge to make our own sugar is also brilliant!

the irish moss is simply for my pure enjoyment. jambaloney said "we have 10 million kinds of mosses all over our land! why do you need to buy moss seeds!". i explained that irish moss is a particular-looking moss that i want to use in my faery gardens. he just shook his head. and now that i come to think about it - the moss IS prepper-related - imagine this scenario: S has hit the fan, zombies are everywhere, no one has any food - what is the one thing that will become one of the biggest barter items??? yep - you guessed it! FAERY GARDENS!!! bahahaha!

anyway, while i was doing my planting, jambaloney transplanted the kale from the greenhouse into a bed. yes - he needs a tiny bit of help with making straight rows!

here are some daffodils popping up!

and some more!

kids - we had a long, wonderful day! and tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer - woohoo - RIVER DAY! after we do some chores and whatnot. maybe even our first canoe or boat ride tomorrow.

after such an awesome day, we of course had to celebrate with some sushi!

tuna and avocado sushi with dipping sauce, warm tamago and pickled ginger. not an exciting sushi plate but i can gum the tuna, avocado and tamago. i can't gum the strawberry due to the seeds.

anyway, in good old kirsty udall style who never seems to get her deliveries on time - we have been waiting for our 2 new loungers (our 10yr old ones finally crapped out!) allllllll day! and this is the third time we waited. the first time they left a note on the door - i must have been asleep and jambaloney at work. then they sent us an email for another delivery day - then changed that day to today! they deliver anywhere between 7am and 7pm which means you can't go anywhere (like walk to the river). we were outside all day and so left a note on the front door telling the guy that if he knocked and got no answer, to come around back. it's now 6:40pm and that guy better get here soon! i don't like being mean but we planned to spend all this evening in the hottub!!! arghgghghg!

oh well - tomorrow it's supposed to be gorgeous out....can't wait! and if everything goes as planned - i'll show you the GREATEST THING ON THE PLANET! it's hot pink, is sparkly and completely useless to most people. and certainly there is no 45yr old woman would ever WANT - let alone go out and GET!!! but she's a real beauty and i cannot wait to share it with you all - bahahahahah! if you don't already think i'm loopy - you definitely will when you see this! bahahahahah!

12 comments:

ok buddy - i used to think that you read the heading of my posts...then scanned while bored through all of the pics...but i always believed that you at least read my last paragraph!!! and it shows that you don't! because i called myself loopy and you didn't jump on it.

i am heartbroken and now know that you only read the title and scroll down to leave a some-what related comment. heartbroken i say.

I love to see what you're planting! And ginseng! Wow! I have a lot of trouble growing herbs from seed so I hope you have great success. I'm in Jam's camp when it comes to planting in straight lines, LOL.

We missed out on spring too; it just got too hot too quickly. But that's always the case it seems. I like autumn for weather better. :)

Leigh - your garden is beautiful and i love seeing pics of it! for some strange reason, i have a really pretty easy time with just about all herbs. except for one. i bought comfrey seeds and nursed and cared for that scrawny plant like you wouldn't believe. this was our first spring here so we didn't know what was already here. we had these big, beautiful, 6ft high plants with beautiful blue-lavender flowers all over our land! jambaloney said - isn't that comfrey? and it was!!! we had comfrey all over our land and some of it gets 8ft tall if we don't cut it down. my comfrey that i planted is still scrawny and has never flowered! fail!

we are just getting our spring - my favourite season except for summer and fall. our spring lasts until the beginning of july and then we get summer from mid-july right through to end september. we have a very temperate and stable climate through each season and we love it.

i am sorry you missed your spring. and autumn will be coming your way soon. xoxox

Sounds like life is cranking along ok way up there. I can sympathize about your recliners. I always had trouble getting deliveries because the trucks couldn't get past my gate. I finally just told all the drivers to either leave the boxes at the gate or tie the stuff to the gate in a plastic bag. Now only rarely do I have to hassle with driving into town to pick something up.

Harry - these loungers are for outside - nothing fancy just something we can lay on and read our books and chat and sunbathe. we actually had them delivered saturday morning out of the blue. i'll tell more in my next post. but yes, we are getting to the point where we just want to make a laminated sign and put it on our chain that says "any deliveries - just leave here". but UPS ALWAYS requires a signature - arghghghgh! sending love,buddy! xoxox

Love the idea of faery gardens. We have found Gnomes hidden all over the garden here, as we slowly cut the garden back. The lady who lived here certainly had many items growing in it, that during the witch hunt times she would have been tried for it.

Sol - i do faery gardens all over the yard. i also do faery garden salvation army store where faeries can come and pick and choose their materials for dresses (it's really just strips of old material that birds take for their nests!). but i also do faery doors on trees and rocks. maybe i'll put up a post about that.

since pruning back the vines, the grapes seem to be doing very well as they are all budding. fingers crossed! xoxoxo

About Framboise Manor

Framboise Manor is our Bug-Out Location (BOL) that we have been living in since December 2010. As can be seen by the above picture - calling it simply a "Manor" doesn't do it justice - we bet you think it is more like an "Estate", eh?

Check out our Recipe Blog!

Search This Blog

CONTACT US

Who Are We?

we are jambaloney and kymber. here's a pic of us below...we look very happy and content. it's because we really are!

About jambaloney

(he's only 23 in this pic...he has 20+years of additional muscle now...if you can believe it!)

kymber here and talking about jambaloney.

i've always called him my angel. my rock. my best half. the best part of what i have always wanted to become.

he has a soul as big as the biggest mountain, he is strong, he is in incredible physical condition, he is 51 and yet most people think he is under 40. he is humble and modest, charming, gorgeous and will help anyone with anything at anytime. he never grumbles and only every now and again complains or is a tiny bit cranky (nothing that a hug can't fix!). he can cut both sides out of 70 tires in minutes, build raised beds from scrap wood that he drags out of the forest, weedwhack 800ft of our road down to the river, and haul more wheelbarrows of dirt, mulch, rocks and seaweed than is probably medically-advised. he's learned how to braid, make bread and no one makes better rice - not even the chinese. he supports my every, crazy endevour. he went 44 years without a driver's license and got his license after being trained by my crazily-wonderful french canadian friend in 2 weeks. she never stopped talking the whole time. in french.

he has biked everywhere his entire life, at one job he biked 24km EACH WAY. that's to and from! 24km to work AND 24km from work! oh and just accidentally has an honours degree in philosophy.

i believe that he is Our Lord's most beautiful and perfect creation. but i might be biased. he can very accurately shoot a ben pearson cougar re-curve from both the left and right. and his aim is dead on.

he is bow-legged and only 5'7", but has the most incredible eyes. and a tiny mole on his upper lip. he writes the most romantic "insta-poems". he tells me he loves me several times a day. he calls me "babe" and "honey". and he means it.he loves hot sauce and spicey things like cayenne and banana peppers, he buys (or now picks) me flowers, he left a lucrative, high-paying IT job and his family to follow me here to this remote little island. he builds me shelves and washes all of our laundry with me by hand.

oh and he was baptized Anglican. and was an alter boy. sheesh. somehow, through my intervention, i am turning him into a pagan-christian-fundamentalist-confuscian. look, even i can't figure that out!

the name jambaloney is a nickname that i gave him over 10 years ago. he still uses it. he can be reached at "jambaloney@gmail.com". he loves comments or emails. and he loves me.

if i were given the opportunity to wish one thing for the world - i would wish that every woman on the planet had a jambaloney. i know that i could save the world this way. i have friends who have asked me to clone him. i am trying. believe me, i am trying. one day i will perfect the science involved, and when that happens, i promise all of you a jambaloney.

i love him more than...breathing, lobster, boiled dinner, fresh bread out of the oven, bugging out, singing back up for Madonna (ok...i made that one up!), fresh sheets on the bed, a glass of red wine after a long day, sunflower seeds, lavender, growing my own potatoes, T.S. Eliot, dancing, my babies (who are really just cranky old cats!) and the Bible.

i love him more than i love Framboise Manor. and i really love Framboise Manor.

About kymber

(this pic might seem odd. trust me, it's not. 20 yrs ago kymber went shopping with a girlfriend from the military and bought this dress. then she hooked up with that girlfriend recently. they caught up through email and one day kymberz friend mentioned that specific dress. kymber said she still had it (kymber still has her prom gown for crying out loud!). the friend did not believe it. so we had to take a pic of kymber wearing the 20yr old dress for her friend. kymber always likes to add accessories...and well, we had the bunny ears laying around. ya know, cuz everyone always has pink bunny ears laying around. ok, that's it...i am out of here! jambaloney)

what can i say about kymber?? A LOT!!most of it will have to wait for blog entries ‘cuz i just don’t have enough space here to do her justice…

so i’ll have to do my best… first and foremost, kymber is my partner and i will love her forever. she is the best partner anyone could ever have, i am one lucky guy!! she is 46, she is sweet as can be, smart as a whip, super cute, exceptionally feminine, strong as an ox, honest, kind, empathetic, wise, an amazing dancer, a master wit in speaking and writing….i could go on..i will!

at 5’ 1’’ she packs a wallop – a true force of nature -she is a master gardener and chef and spent 10 years in the Canadian Military – she has done 2 tours of Alert (the north bloody-cold pole). she is a UN-certified Korean linguist and spoils our 2 cats rotten. she also spent 12yrs working in the federal government, as a communications analyst at SolGen (now PSEPC) and Fintrac. she loves nature in the true sense of the phrase..the wildflowers, insects and birds here at framboise manor keep her entranced and captivated for hours.

anyone who is her friend knows that she will stop at nothing to help and heal, dedication and loyalty are an integral part of who she is and she is dead serious about anything she puts her mind to. yet she maintains the most delicate touch and a smile on her face always, never afraid to live and love no matter where and when.

she is the most genuine human being i have ever met! and she has encouraged me to embark on the most crazy and exciting adventure i could imagine… thank you babe - i sooo love you!!!